WASHINGTON — As he entered office, President Barack Obama made a symbolic bow to frugality, putting off the costly redecorating of the Oval Office that his predecessors had done.
But if the furnishings have remained largely the same — right down to the stain on the big oval rug — the way Obama looks and acts there is decidedly different from his predecessor, not to mention all those who went before.
At the 100-day mark, he’s putting his own style on the presidency. Opportunistic. Pragmatic. Confident. Deliberate. Polite to friend and foe alike. Partisan. Polarizing.
Some traits he’ll maintain throughout his presidency. Some could change over his term. John F. Kennedy grew skeptical after a disastrous invasion of Cuba early in his presidency, learning to challenge aides and adopting an executive style that saw him and the country through a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union.
“He’s flexible,” George Edwards, a scholar of the presidency and currently a visiting fellow at Oxford University, said of Obama. “He’s still learning.”
As he seeks to get his way, at home and abroad, Obama’s demonstrated a penchant for working people one on one, apparently confident that he can win over anyone.
While he may be laying the groundwork for more civil relations with Republicans and legislative successes later, he won only three Republican Senate votes for his stimulus package and none in the House of Representatives, none from either chamber for his budget, and he also failed to persuade European leaders to send combat troops to help in Afghanistan.
A careful and deliberate communicator, Obama relies on the teleprompter more than any other president. At ease with congressional Democrats, Obama defers to them to work out the details. He also set up staff to fire off e-mails to generate grassroots support from 13 million backers and to attack foes such as radio host Rush Limbaugh. Then he hits the road himself about once a week to sell the broader message.
“It still has the look and feel of the campaign,” said Michael Franc, a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization.
While Obama talks plenty of policy at his town hall meetings, he also uses a public relations strategy to sell the softer side, chatting amiably with Jay Leno, appearing on ESPN to reveal his college basketball picks, and walking the new dog, Bo, on the White House lawn.
The effect? His base loves him. Republicans, however, aren’t buying his agenda. In fact, a recent survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found him with high approval from Democrats and independents but dismally low approval from Republicans.
